There I was, six months after starting Project Jalapeño, having more of those green little suckers than I could eat in a lifetime. After all the work I put into growing them, I sure wasn’t going to let them go to waste, so I thought of ways to keep them.

I already froze a batch—chopped and whole—but quickly found they get a little mushy upon thawing. No biggie, you won’t even notice that in soups or stews, but surely there had to be more ways? And there are.

I ordered a very cheap dehydrator and put it to the test.

I picked a batch. Carefully and thoroughly I washed and dried them.

Removed the stems, cut them in half and placed them in the dehydrator.

I was so glad I decided to let them dry in the storage shed we have in the back yard, because they gave off very pungent fumes. Wouldn’t have been a happy camper had I had that smell in the house.

That was all. I gave them 12 hours to dry and here’s how they came out.

I left the seeds in because I like it spicy. That way I will also need less to give a dish a nice kick.

Gave them a quick medium to fine grind in my spice mill. It came out perfect!

If you cut them by hand or use something like a slap ‘n chop, you get jalapeño flakes. This time I decided to turn them into a powder, but next batch will be flakes.

Here’s a batch of green chill peppers I dried and cut by hand. I can buy dried red chill flakes, but never saw their green counterparts.

Here’s a mix I made of red and green Jalapeños combined with dried red onion flakes in the slap ‘n chop. Flavour is phenomenal.

Imagine all the things you can do with spicy, flavourful jalapeño powder. I’m going to make a few really amazing seasonings with this, I’m sure, starting with Jalapeño salt. It will also be great for sauces, dressings, stews and sprinkled over dishes as a finishing touch.

Think I’ll smoke the next batch before dehydrating them. Can only imagine how good that will taste.